Never Far from Home: My Journey from Brooklyn to Hip Hop, Microsoft, and the Law by Bruce Jackson

Never Far from Home: My Journey from Brooklyn to Hip Hop, Microsoft, and the Law Reviews

• 
  Brandice

  Never Far from Home is Bruce Jackson’s memoir, detailing his journey “from Brooklyn to hip hop, Microsoft and the law.” Today, Bruce is a senior in-house legal counsel at Microsoft, and has been with the company since 2000. His path was far from easy or linear and in this memoir, Bruce shares his journey. ⁣
  
  From housing projects to teachers doubting his skills, to mentors and family members who believed in and supported him, Bruce has experienced it all. He worked at a bank and was an entertainment lawyer representing musicians prior to joining Microsoft. Unfortunately Bruce experienced racism in the academic and corporate worlds and has been a victim of racial profiling by police, more than once. His stories were both moving and infuriating, and I felt for him. ⁣
  ⁣
  “There will be discomfort in life. There will be sadness and pain. There will be bad days and bad moments … there will be times when you are underestimated, discriminated against, counted out, cast aside. Systemic racism, gender discrimination, homophobia, religious bigotry, generational poverty unfairness is in the DNA of our society … We plug away for change, but these things cannot be fixed overnight, and so you do your best to swim against the tide. If you're strong and fortunate enough to get to the other side, you stand up proudly. Then, you reach back and help those who are behind you, facing a similar struggle. And therein lies the joy in life.”⁣
  ⁣
  I appreciate Bruce sharing his story in Never Far from Home, a reminder we don’t always get to choose where we start but can still succeed with hard work and the right mindset, and help others succeed too.
• 
  Joyce Cacioppo stein

  Never far from home by Bruce Jackson is the story of his life and survival. Bruce was a poor African American kid raised in the projects of New York. Most of his life he lived with his mother and siblings in New York City and at times with his grandmother in Brooklyn. He had a very supportive over-extended family.
  
  Growing up in the projects he saw it all, theft, drugs and murder just to name a few. He had friends that skipped school, sold drugs, used drugs, stole things and got themselves killed. He was involved in some not so legal activities also, mainly to raise money as that was something there was never enough of in his family. His life could have gone in a very different direction if not for his family. His Grandmother was his biggest supporter of education. She wanted him to do well, go on to college, and make something of himself.
  
  Bruce met many people along the way that wound up rooting for him, helping him find ways to access what was needed to better himself. That isn’t to say that he didn’t make mistakes, even getting himself arrested a couple of times and thrown into jail even though he was not guilty. What this brought out was how the African American people are constantly profiled by the police with the assumption being that they are guilty mainly because of who they are.
  
  Bruce went on to Graduate from Georgetown law with both a law degree and masters in law. He worked in the entertainment business, technology, starting his own company as well as working for others. In most of places outside of his own, he found that he was the minority lawyer in the companies.
  This aided in his push for more diversity and inclusion in the companies. Bruce is currently the associate general counsel with Microsoft.
  
  I found his life story to be interesting and informative. I had no idea about the challenges the African American population faced and from what you see today, it has not changed much. So much more needs to be done. I thank Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this before release in exchange for an honest review. I highly recommend it.
• 
  Alan Hill

  I really enjoyed this memoir. It was a surprise for sure! I went into this mildly interested in based on the description and the they very little information provided about Bruce Jackson. What really pulled me in here was the writing and perspective! Jackson’s ability to put you right there next to and in his head as he passes through he tremulous upbringing in Brooklyn and the east Manhattan really grabbed me. For readers who enjoyed Will, Finding Me, and Becoming.
  
  The prologue in particular immediately gets you situated into Bruce’s current feelings about the path he’s taken toward prosperity. It paints a picture of a man who has done what he’s supposed to do; he’s pulled himself up by his bootstraps and gotten pretty high in the process. None of that saves him from the racial profiling by police that any minority would know all too well. The feeling of reading the prologue will definitely sit with me for a long time. Jackson immediately blew past my expectations and let me know that this was going give a critical look at circumstance.
  
  The novel then backs all the way up to his early youth setting up the general circumstances that Bruce is born into. Moving naturally into the setting of Bruce’s life being young in New York at such a pivotal time in the history of the area. He describes the exact moment when he loses his innocence so well that you’re right next to him as he ripping and running through the streets dodging all the pitfalls that are capturing his peers. These obstacles are missing him so narrowly that it truly turns the novel into a testament to amount of chance involved in surviving at that time and even now to an extent. Missing these obstacles are often the unspoken prerequisites to any “bootstraps” that could ever be afforded.
  
  The “bootstraps” in question really come into play as Bruce is pulled out of his comfort zone and thrusted into an academic environment that is challenging in more ways than most would expect. As someone who went to a PWI in a major that was not well integrated, even now, computer science, I related to this part of the book as much as the first part. Jackson writes about a compelling hunger for community that is, at every turn, at odds with the goals that are put before him to continue to blaze a trail into predominantly white and inviting spaces. At one point, Bruce even decides that the best path forward in his life is to take a job opportunity at a firm where he’s been quite publicly and loudly micro-aggressed.
  
  While I can see a dark sense of humor in how blatantly and deftly some of the racism Bruce faces gets thrown at him, at other times Jackson is able to use those moments to paint an overarching picture of the odds and counterintuitive nature of the climate he had to enter into was. I don’t know if I would have been able to make the hard decisions the Bruce ends up making time and time again in order to carve out a future for himself.
  
  The next section of the book focuses on a very surprising stint that Bruce has into entertainment law. While entertaining and very ripe for comment I ended feeling this was the weakest section of the book in some ways. We go through Bruce’s life so quickly here that is hard at times to be as immersed in his psyche as we find ourselves at other points of the book. This is the section where a normal reader may find themselves more caught up in the frequent name dropping and this is where it gets closer to run of the mill memoir. It just so happens that this is the least relatable section, but Jackson still find a way to make it very enjoyable to read.
  
  Although, the book end up finishing very strong! The last section of the book goes through Bruce’s life at Microsoft and Jackson, once again, gets us deep into the psyche of a man at odds with his surroundings and surviving and thriving despite it. Bruce makes extremely tough and consequential decisions here, and the writing puts you right there wondering what you would decide before taking you on the journey of Bruce’s decisions. I particularly enjoyed the commentary on generational fatherhood trauma, and Jackson’s writing keeps you on your toes by not giving the critique away until the very end. Often taking the surprising and rare taken opportunity to be critical of his own pride and alerting you to how his trauma shaped his decisions without him even realizing it at the time.
  
  What a wonderful, refreshing and surprising read! This is sure to be a standout for the rest of the year. Jackson paints an grueling tale with an ultimately critical yet optimistic finale.
• 
  Alisa

  It is one thing to applaud those who overcome the circumstances of a disadvantaged background, but do people take the time to understand what that really means? How does that show up in someone's life? What do they have to do to overcome? Bruce shares his very real experience in a very real way. We all need to listen.
  
  Bruce reflects on his life so far and takes us inside starting with his early childhood growing up in the projects of NYC where poverty, crime, and lack of access to opportunity are persistent. Racism rears its head and ensnares Bruce resulting in him getting tossed into jail for a crime he did not commit - at the age of 10. It would not be the last time this happens, through no fault of his own. If you believe these things 'don't happen to good people or those who obey', you are sadly misinformed.
  
  There is so much to this story. Bruce rose from a challenging environment and overcame circumstances that were stacked against him to forge his own path. He shows us the kind of person he is at his core every step of the way. He shares his challenges, faces his fears, works his way through the unknown including systems and processes and attitudes that are stacked against him. It is also clear that the few who stopped to understand the young man in front of them saw someone brimming with ability, grit, and potential. The unspoken advantage of a lending hand and well-connected network afforded so many other people (based on nothing more than their gender, race, or birthright) were extended to him by a few thoughtful souls. Step by step, from a kid in Harlem to a successful lawyer in a Fortune 100 company, Bruce crafted success. One of the strongest common threads that binds this life together is the familial relationships, at times tested, not always linear, but always durable.
  
  He writes with candor and a realness that makes you feel like you are there. It's not literary license. It's the real deal. It's authentic, raw, informed, and inspiring.
  
  This story is a triumph. Bruce is a triumph. I know Bruce. I am glad I know his story. We should all know his story.
• 
  Jan

  I'd never have made it as a Black kid anywhere.
  Bruce started out in the projects in Brooklyn and had a large and complicated extended family. Despite all of his accomplishments and standings in law and business, he has still been subjected to the same unreasonable bias and discrimination. Too real, just as the bias and discrimination are still stupid and definitive of unreasoning fears.
  This is a good read and a very necessary one.
  I requested and received an E Galley from Atria Books via NetGalley. Thank you!
  
• 
  kimberly

  some real, hard hitting, moving moments and stories in this memoir that give you a first hand look at the social injustice in america. jackson’s story put me through such a range of emotions. i will be recommending this to everyone
• 
  Kerry Croucier

  For me, memoirs always take a backseat to fiction, but there was something about the description of Bruce Jackson’s NEVER FAR FROM HOME that had me intrigued from the beginning. When I started reading, I was hooked. Jackson’s memoir is well-written and engaging. There is just so much to Jackson’s life and his accomplishments that are inspiring.
  Bruce Jackson writes about his life candidly. His writing is vivid, and you can see where just one slight detour could have put him on an entirely different path, especially if he’d had no one who cared about his future. Luckily, he had his grandmother and aunt who valued education and pushed him to be more, and a mother who loved him, all of whom influenced the direction of his life. He worked hard and there were times when the path blurred, but he was lucky that each time there was someone put in his path that believed in him. Even when he was successful, he always remembered where he came from and still went home to the projects. I can’t pretend to know what it was and is like to grow up in any similar situation, nor to be profiled because of the color of my skin. Jackson details the good and the bad in his life in a matter-of-fact manner that, at times, left me stunned.
  I would recommend NEVER FAR FROM HOME as a book everyone should read. It made me think and opened my eyes even more. What Jackson has accomplished in his life is impressive, and if reading this book or attending an event he is speaking at inspires others to make those tough decisions and reach for more, the world will be a better place.
  Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of the novel. All opinions are my own and freely given.
  #neverfarfromhome #brucejackson #atriapublishing
• 
  Nima Morgan

  A truly amazing, awe-inspiring autobiography. Definitely recommend this memoir to anyone who needs an uplifting story. Proof that one should never, ever give up.
  
  Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.
• 
  MaryKate

  This is a quick read that’s eye opening and hopeful. What an interesting journey Mr. Jackson as been on. There are times I wanted more details (his later family life) but I understand that he kept this mostly to his education and career trajectory. His passages about what inclusion really means will stick with me as I try to be a better DEI advocate.
• 
  David Giard

  Bruce Jackson has been a lawyer at Microsoft for the past two decades, which happens to be the same company that employs me. But his time at the tech giant is a small part of his autobiography - "Never Far from Home: My Journey from Brooklyn to Hip Hop, Microsoft, and the Law." Instead, Jackson takes us on a trip through his life growing up in the New York City projects, attending Hofstra University and Georgetown Law School, and running a successful entertainment legal business before joining Microsoft.
  
  His life is a success story in which he escaped the cycle of poverty common among many raised in a single-parent home in the inner city.
  
  He points to a strong work ethic that helped him succeed, whereas many from his background did not. Still, he also acknowledges the advantages he had that many of his childhood neighbors lacked - not the least of which was a supportive extended family. With few opportunities in the lower-income black neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn, many of his friends turned to drugs and ended up dead or in jail. Few were able to overcome the systemic racism that stood in their path.
  
  After law school, the author worked in the entertainment industry, representing many of the top hip-hop artists in America, such as LL Cool J, Heavy D, and Busta Rhymes. He founded one of the country's most successful black-owned entertainment law firms. From there, he accepted a job as an attorney at Microsoft, rising in the ranks and using his position to promote diversity and inclusion within the company.
  
  Jackson immediately grabs the reader with a story of when police pulled him over and jailed him overnight because of an unpaid parking ticket. He tells of the time he was arrested at age ten when a policeman chased him through a subway tunnel because he vaguely looked like a crime suspect. He recounts another arrest and another night in jail years later - this time because he did not have physical proof that his car was insured. Such encounters underscore the differences between my life and Mr. Jackson's. It is almost unthinkable that police would choose to incarcerate a white man like me on such trivial charges. But they were suspicious of a black man in an expensive car playing hip-hop music.
  
  Few people of color existed in almost every environment into which he arrived. Jackson found few people who looked like him when he started at law school, in the business side of the entertainment industry, and in the corporate high-tech world. Conscious and unconscious barriers existed both professionally and socially. He worked to change things - providing opportunities for qualified minorities within his organization and within the broader industry. Jackson is now the associate general counsel for Microsoft. But the legal department looks very different than it did when he began over 20 years ago.
  
  When faced with an obstacle like institutional racism, you can approach that obstacle in multiple ways. You can use it as an excuse to remain where you are, or you can figure out how to get past it. Jackson chose the latter approach. But he did not stop there. After he found himself in a position of influence, he used his position to change the system.
  
  Jackson is the lead character in this rags-to-riches story. His professional success shows we can rise above our circumstances through hard work. But we need to acknowledge that the playing field is not level. Jackson succeeded with an almost obsessive work ethic - one that cost him multiple personal relationships. The system includes barriers for African Americans that white people in this country often do not acknowledge or even notice. It is up to all of us to recognize this and address the issue.
  
• 
  Shirley McAllister

  I made it , Mama
  
  This is the story of a young African American man facing the challenges of poverty, crime, prejudice and discrimination in New York City, and later in Seattle, Washington.
  
  Bruce Jackson faced many challenges as a child and a young man growing up with a single mom and a father that was in and out of his life...all his life. At times he wanted to give up, but his Aunt gave him the strength and courage to finish school so he could do better than the projects of New York.
  
  Bruce worked hard, he had many mentors that helped him a great deal along the way. Sometimes he faltered, but he never failed. He struggled and he triumphed. Not only did he succeed but he did so in a large way. He was also in a position to help other young men that had worked hard to find employment in the legal field that had been very hard for them to find.
  
  Even after he succeeded in his career he sometimes failed in his private and family life, eventually him and his wife divorced because of the distance between them and his dedication to his career. They stayed friends and he helped raise his daughters.
  
  It is the story of one young man with the courage and the fortitude to resist the crime, the drugs, and the easy money they brought and work hard to better his life, to prove that he could be what he wanted. He could be the first in his family to go to and graduate from college. He could succeed.
  
  It must have been a bit odd to see someone in a business suit walking into the projects and walking out to work the next morning. I cannot even imagine how Bruce would feel, living in two worlds but not exactly belonging in either one. It would be a very strange existence and at times very odd. It was almost as if he lived two lives...the business life...the home life ... and the two were quite different from each other but he existed in both equally well.
  
  This was a good book, it made me think and that is a good thing. I never thought of it before but he is right , the differences in race do tend to cause awkwardness in the workplace. Each racial unit does tend to group with each other, not a whole lot of mixing in social settings although it is getting a bit better.
  
  I enjoyed reading the book and I would recommend it .
  
  Thanks to Bruce Jackson for sharing his story, to Atria books for publishing it and to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read and review.
  
• 
  Julie

  I’m a sucker for a good rags-to-riches memoir and Never Far From Home did not disappoint. Jackson grew up poor, in the NYC projects. He repeatedly faced racism, and a slew of adults who underestimated his intelligence as well as his resilience, grit and determination. “It was, in some ways, the worst sort of racism, the kind based not on hatred but on assumptions and ignorance.” I was inspired by the way Jackson was able to transcend a home life that did not value education as a path out of poverty. As an advocate for youth in foster care, Jackson’s perspective opened my eyes to issues that I had never thought about. The high school co-op program, a program that essentially put a ceiling on Jackson’s goals and aspirations, and the lessons that he learned from that experience, was one example. Additionally, Jackson has an important view on diversity in the workplace, and this book would be a valuable read for companies interested in supporting true inclusion.
  
  Jackson’s success was supported by mentors and trusted advisors, a real village. Towards the end of the memoir, it began to feel more like a thank you note to those individuals, taking me out of the narrative of the story.
  
  My thanks to NetGalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in any way.
• 
  Readnponder

  I originally picked up this memoir because the author had attended Georgetown Law, as had I. When I started reading, I discovered we were there at the same time, although our paths did not cross. Now I wish they had – as Bruce is a remarkable person whose perseverance and love of family are admirable.
  
  He grew up in the projects, in a single parent home, but with a supportive extended family. He had to repeat a grade in elementary school. Too many of his peers ended up dead or incarcerated. Yet with a little encouragement, his own tenaciousness, and lots of hard work, he got a higher education (including an LLM!).
  
  I especially admire how Jackson did not forget his roots. Even when corporate counsel at Microsoft, he lived with his mother in the projects (although eventually they both moved out). He advocated for diversity programs at Microsoft and encouraged those coming along behind him. Truly, an inspiring story.
• 
  ML

  What an interesting and uplifting story! Bruce Jackson grew up in the projects, and as a young person his life was definitely headed in the wrong direction. Thanks to his family, especially his grandmother, education for hims was a priority. Eventually, he graduated from Georgetown Law School. held various positions in the entertainment and technology industries (among others), and even started his own company. He is now the associate general counsel at Microsoft.
  
  Bruce had a lot of encouragement from many people — as well as a few good breaks — along the way, but it was his tenacity that kept him going and got him where he is today. His memoir, which is beautifully written, should serve as a shining example to others, giving any reader mounds of hope the he/she can definitely achieve his/her dreams.
  
  Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.
• 
  Cindy

  Never Far from Home, by Bruce Jackson, is the absorbing story of the author's journey from the projects of New York City to considerable affluence as 0ne of the top attorneys in Microsoft's legal department. Jackson is brutally honest about his journey and what he learned on the way. His prose is direct and spare. Jackson's memoir reads like a well-paced novel. He manages to capture all the nuance and dimension of the many people in his life. His insights about diversity, inclusion, and the persistent prevalence of systemic racism were confirmation that we have a long way to go before we are united as a society. This book is moves forward quickly but leaves the reader with a lot to think about. I highly recommend.
• 
  Michelle

  Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the electronic copy of this book.
  
  Never Far from Home was an incredibly interesting memoir of growing up as a poor black kid in New York City to college to Georgetown Law (go Hoyas!), to entertainment lawyer for some of the biggest names in rap and hip hop, to in-house counsel for Microsoft. Rather than hide his challenges, Bruce has used his position to advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace. By acknowledging his whole self, he is able to help others do the same. It's a powerful memoir and should definitely be on your list to read.
• 
  Lillian Londer

  Mr. Jackson's narrative is the perfect balance of storytelling and thoughtful reflection; his story is sure to inspire readers everywhere. The work he's done and continues to do for African Americans and other marginalized communities serves as a call to action for all of us. Thank you, Mr. Jackson for proving that as individuals, we have the power to make our world a better place for everyone
• 
  Yolanda

  This was and interesting read and uplifting but I found it a bit slow . If you like character driven novels then you will like this . If you like plot driven novels probably not .
  Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book
• 
  H Paige

  An engaging read
• 
  Heba

  good book